AFRICA: In Mali, Islamist rebel group Ansar Dine said it has suspended a ceasefire it agreed to with the government last month, accusing Bamako of making a mockery of peace talks by gearing up for war.

AMERICAS: In Honduras, thousands of protesters in Tegucigalpa blocked Supreme Court judges from entering the court’s building, saying they want to “clean up Honduras’ justice system.”

ASIA: The US could keep between 6,000 and 15,000 troops in Afghanistan after the official 2014 NATO withdrawal.

EUROPE: US troops arrived in Turkey to man Patriot missile defense batteries near the Syrian border.

MIDDLE EAST: In Syria, at 11 people were killed and 40 wounded when a car bomb exploded at a crowded gas station in Damascus.

TECHNOLOGY: Communications satellites will become legal for civilian export under legislation that President Obama signed into law.

TOP STORY

Venezuela: According to the government, President Chavez is being treated for a severe “respiratory deficiency.”

“Chavez has faced complications as a consequence of a severe pulmonary infection. This infection has resulted in a respiratory deficiency, which requires … strict compliance with his medical treatment,” Information Minister Ernesto Villegas.

Questions are swirling about how the inauguration on 10JAN will proceed, if it happens, who will govern, and if there will be a power struggle.

VP Maduro stated Chavez authorized Venezuelan diplomats to have contact with their American counterparts.

The government accused the international media of waging a “psychological war” over President Chavez’s health to try to destabilize the government and bring down its socialist revolution.

United States: Authorities busted a smuggling ring that brought narwhal tusks from the Canadian Arctic into Maine. (AP)

Venezuela: Security personnel arrested a group of suspected cocaine traffickers, among them four Nigerians, further illustration of the importance of drug smuggling routes from South America to West Africa, and then onto Europe. (CSM)

ASIA

Region: Japan sent a special envoy to Seoul in an attempt to mend fences over a territorial dispute. (AFP)

Afghanistan: The US could keep between 6,000 and 15,000 troops in Afghanistan after the official 2014 NATO withdrawal. (CNN)

China: Press regulators will step up efforts to weed out unlicensed reporters. (Xinhua)